6 Best Times to Moisturize Your Natural Hair

Any Naturalista will agree that the key to a healthy natural hair has to do with how you moisturize your natural hair. Also, another key factor to a healthy moisturized hair also lies in how frequently you add moisture to your hair. You see, a lot of women will only moisturize their hair on wash days after they’ve washed their hair, and most won’t go back to add more moisture to their hair until the next wash day which could be weeks or months down the road.

Unfortunately, because kinky coily afro-textured hair is always so thirsty, the best way to quench this thirst is to add moisture back into the hair as often as possible. The reason for this frequency is because healthy moisturized hair will have more elasticity and strength against breakage. This ultimately translates into a healthy growing hair.

So, if you are wondering about the best times to moisturize your natural hair, here are 6 best times to restore moisture back into your hair.

after washing your hair

Generally when you wash your hair, either with a shampoo or conditioner, your hair will be cleaner and lighter to accept more hair products. At this stage, you want to make sure that you apply a good leave-in conditioner in your hair immediately after washing it.

2. Before combing Your Hair

This might seem like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised to see hair stylists fighting a comb through dry hair! So, before combing your hair, you want to make sure that it’s flexible enough to be stretched and combed through without much breakage.

3. Before manipulating your hair

It’s always a good idea to apply some products in your hair before you do anything with it. When dry hair is manipulated, it lacks the elasticity needed to spring and bounce back and forth without breaking. So, if you plan on changing up your hairstyle, re-twisting or unravelling twists, you should apply a moisturizer in your hair first, especially if your hair feels dry at that point.

4. Before an outdoor activity

Depending on the conditions in your environment, your hair might feel very dry after spending some time outside. In fact, one of the major causes of hair damage is often a result of elements in the environment that aren’t conducive to our hair. An overexposure to the sunlight or cold air can leave your hair feeling dry and crisp. So, if you plan on spending considerable amounts of time outside, you should consider applying a moisturizer to your hair before stepping out.

5. Before styling your hair

Are you planning on changing the physical structure of your hair with a hairstyle such as cornrows, two strand twists or a rod set? Then you better make sure that you’ve applied a hair cream in your hair first. Applying a moisturizer in your hair prior to styling it will not only give you a pain-free hair styling session, it will also speed up the hair styling process and most importantly, help to keep more hair on your head and less on the floor or in your hair comb.

6. Before going to bed

According to the book “The Science of Black Hair“, Audrey Davis-Sivasothy suggests that the best time to moisturize your hair is in the evening before going to bed. In the book, she went on to explain that moisturizing your hair before going to sleep at night will help to maintain some level of elasticity in your hair while you sleep. This way, your hair will be able to withstand your usual toss and turns while you sleep at night, without much breakage. She also suggests that you keep your hair contained under a satin bonnet so that the moisture in your hair doesn’t get absorbed by your pillow.